When sheriff’s deputy Ramon Charley Armendariz hanged himself, he left behind a house full of questions.

Among the items at his house were a stash of drugs, evidence bags from old cases, hundreds of fake IDs and thousands of his video-recorded traffic stops that were withheld in a racial-profiling case against his boss, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Now, the quest for answers has raised the possibility that a yet-to-be-determined number of his cases could be thrown out and has refocused attention on Arpaio and his department, already under close watch by a federal monitor in the profiling case.

Much more at the link.

I’ll state at the outset that I don’t think there’s anything wrong with profiling. It’s ludicrous for TSA officers to be strip-searching old ladies and Swedes at airports, for instance. Needless to say, I don’t approve of an officer shaking down suspects.

While profiling, racial or otherwise, is certainly a useful tool, I have strong objections to the way Sheriff Arpaio operates. He’s a statist, authoritarian monster, and as much as I hate hearing and seeing this word, one of the more racist elected officials in the US. Quite frankly, if cattle cars start coming into vogue in the US, Sheriff Joe, the ‘Toughest Sheriff in America’ will be gleefully slamming the doors closed on camera.

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Started in October of 2002, Alphecca is an occasional blog of OPINIONS by a libertarian, gay gun-nut living in Vermont. Book reviews, politics, gun stuff, other stuff; it’s all here. Your opinions about my opinions are welcome in the comments and as I always say, thank’s for stopping by.